From uncoordinated pigeons to aimlessly frogs: The teaching of the brain through Natural Sciences textbooks (1900-1950)

Bento Cavadas

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to show how the encephalon was presented in the syllabus and Natural Science textbooks published in the first half of the XXth century. For this purpose, it was used a qualitative method based in the Chevallard’s concept of didactic transposition. The content of syllabus showed that the study of the encephalon was always associated to the study of nervous system. The neuroanatomical and physiological description of the encephalon on textbooks subdivided in medulla oblongata, cerebellum and brain. The textbooks published in the first two decades of the twentieth century (Aires, 1906, 1920) were more exhaustive in the analysis of these organs than the ones published between 1930 and 1950 (Primo, 1939; Soeiro, 1930, 1950; Lima & Soeiro, 1950). Their analysis showed that the didactic transposition of the scientific knowledge about the encephalon was more based in its anatomy, and less in its physiology, which highlights a bigger advance in the comprehension of its anatomy instead of its function. Every author illustrated the functions of the organs that constitute the encephalon with observation and experiences with animals, like pigeons and frogs.